Americans’ Personal Data Shared with CIA, IRS, Others in Security Probe

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Photo Credit: MELINA YINGLING AND DANNY DOUGHERTY — MCTU.S. agencies collected and shared the personal information of thousands of Americans in an attempt to root out untrustworthy federal workers that ended up scrutinizing people who had no direct ties to the U.S. government and simply had purchased certain books.

Federal officials gathered the information from the customer records of two men who were under criminal investigation for purportedly teaching people how to pass lie detector tests. The officials then distributed a list of 4,904 people – along with many of their Social Security numbers, addresses and professions – to nearly 30 federal agencies, including the Internal Revenue Service, the CIA, the National Security Agency and the Food and Drug Administration.

Although the polygraph-beating techniques are unproven, authorities hoped to find government employees or applicants who might have tried to use them to lie during the tests required for security clearances. Officials with multiple agencies confirmed that they’d checked the names in their databases and planned to retain the list in case any of those named take polygraphs for federal jobs or criminal investigations.

It turned out, however, that many people on the list worked outside the federal government and lived across the country. Among the people whose personal details were collected were nurses, firefighters, police officers and private attorneys, McClatchy learned. Also included: a psychologist, a cancer researcher and employees of Rite Aid, Paramount Pictures, the American Red Cross and Georgetown University.

Moreover, many of them had only bought books or DVDs from one of the men being investigated and didn’t receive the one-on-one training that investigators had suspected. In one case, a Washington lawyer was listed even though he’d never contacted the instructors. Dozens of others had wanted to pass a polygraph not for a job, but for a personal reason: The test was demanded by spouses who suspected infidelity.

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Printed Plastic Guns a Growing Worry for Law Enforcement

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Photo Credit: Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post Federal law enforcement officials are increasingly concerned about the public-safety threats posed by plastic handguns made with 3-D printers because they can potentially slip past metal detectors and are capable of firing lethal rounds.

At a media briefing Wednesday, senior officials of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said they had built and tested the Liberator, a printed handgun designed by Defense Distributed, a Texas organization. Cody Wilson, its co-founder, is a former law student leading a campaign for do-it-yourself firearms.

In one test, ATF officials fired eight rounds from the Liberator. Other tests and simulations showed that the weapon was capable of firing with enough power to injure vital organs.

The Liberator’s designs were downloaded more than 100,000 times in just two days before federal officials demanded their removal in May. The risk, officials said, is not that street criminals will use printed weapons in their day-to-day operations. Rather, ATF officials are concerned about individuals slipping plastic guns past metal detectors and into schools, sporting events or government offices.

Depending on the sensitivity of a metal detector, a bullet might not be enough to set it off. Only X-ray machines could spot the handgun itself, and in many public places they aren’t available.

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One-Hundred and Fifty Years Later Paper Retracts Editorial Dismissing Lincoln’s “Silly Remarks” at Gettysburg

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Photo Credit: Matt ZenceySeven score and ten years ago, the forefathers of this media institution brought forth to its audience a judgment so flawed, so tainted by hubris, so lacking in the perspective history would bring, that it cannot remain unaddressed in our archives.

We write today in reconsideration of “The Gettysburg Address,” delivered by then-President Abraham Lincoln in the midst of the greatest conflict seen on American soil. Our predecessors, perhaps under the influence of partisanship, or of strong drink, as was common in the profession at the time, called President Lincoln’s words “silly remarks,” deserving “a veil of oblivion,” apparently believing it an indifferent and altogether ordinary message, unremarkable in eloquence and uninspiring in its brevity.

In the fullness of time, we have come to a different conclusion. No mere utterance, then or now, could do justice to the soaring heights of language Mr. Lincoln reached that day…

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Action-Packed Trailer for ‘Noah’ Debuts (+video)

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The first official trailer for “Noah,” Daren Aronofsky’s much talked about follow-up to 2010’s “Black Swan,” hit the Internet Thursday.

The latest adaptation of the Book of Genesis narrative stars a grizzly-bearded Russell Crowe as the titular hero, and also features Jennifer Connelly, Emma Watson, Anthony Hopkins and Ray Winstone.

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Anti-Gun Toll Free Tip Line Rewards Citizens for Turning in Family to Police

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Photo Credit: Mario Tama/GettyIf you have a phone, and you are aware that your neighbor, your friend, or even your family member is a gun owner, you can now single-handedly launch an investigation into their activities by using a new toll free “tip line.”

The tip line was set up in New York State by Gov. Andrew Cuomo as an outgrowth of the infamous SAFE Act, reports David Codrea, who quoted from a news item published in The Niagara Falls Reporter.

The new law was initiated in response to the school shooting in Newtown, Conn. New York now has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation.

Cuomo’s tip line encourages and rewards citizens who spy on fellow citizens by offering a $500 reward if an arrest is made as a result of information provided on the tip line.

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Second O’Keefe Video Exposes More Obamacare Navigators Telling People to Commit Fraud (+video)

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Photo Credit: capitolcityproject.comJames O’ Keefe’s Project Veritas has released a second video showing even more Obamacare Navigators in Texas suggesting fraud and deceit to undercover reporters — despite some in the mainstream media calling the first exposé an “isolated incident.”

“Today, Project Veritas released a second investigation exposing more Obamacare navigators counseling applicants to lie and cheat the health care system by erroneously reporting income status, health history, and more,” Project Veritas wrote.

They continue, “Critics said the first video was an isolated incident so we decided to visit with even more navigators funded by your American tax dollars. What we found was disturbing and showed a clear pattern of fraud through the Obamacare navigator program.”

Within the new video, Obamacare Navigators in Texas yet again counsel the reporters to lie in order to avoid higher premiums.

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Rep. Trey Gowdy: Are You Going to Believe What Obama Tells You?

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Photo Credit: APPresident Obama announced an Obamacare “fix,” but who will believe him, a conservative Republican asked ahead of the president’s appearance in the White House briefing room Thursday.

“Are you going to believe what he tells you at 11:30 this morning?” Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) asked during a Thursday morning interview on Fox News.

“Twenty-seven different times he told you, you and I would never be having this conversation, because if you liked your insurance you could keep it. And for those who weren’t paying attention, he said ‘period.'”…

Gowdy said Obama is seeking a “political remedy” — “because his dream of retaking the House has now turned into the nightmare of, he may lose the Senate — because half of the people that he works for don’t believe what comes out of his mouth.”

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Vet Suspended for ‘God Bless America’

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Photo Credit: WND A Stockton, Calif., hospital has suspended a 10-year employee because he included “God Bless America” in the signature line of his emails, even though he obeyed an order to removed the offending phrase.

Boots Hawks, a military veteran, returned to work Nov. 6 at Dameron Hospital to find lock combinations and his computer password had been changed, according to Pacific Justice Institute, or PJI, which is representing him.

“Rarely do we see something as shocking as supervisors placing a hard-working military veteran on leave right before Veterans’ Day for saying something patriotic,” said PJI President Brad Dacus.

“The hospital’s actions were outrageous and illegal. We expect a swift apology and full restoration of Mr. Hawks’ rights,” he said.

The hospital did not respond to a WND request for comment.

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WH Predicts: Tax Revenues Will Cross $3T Mark For First Time in U.S. History in FY ’14– $29,673 Per Full-Time Worker

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Charles DharapakThe latest Monthly Treasury Statement, which was released on Wednesday afternoon, relies on the estimate made by the White House Office of Management and Budget to say that federal tax revenues will top $3 trillion for the first time in the nation’s history in fiscal 2014.

In fact, the record $3,023,004,000,000 in tax revenues that the White House is predicting the federal government will rake in during fiscal 2014 not only exceeds the inflation-adjusted revenue taken in by the government in any previous year, it also equals $29,673 in tax revenue for every full-time worker in the country.

It is also equals $9,534 for every man, woman and child currently living in the country.

Until now, the record-setting year for inflation-adjusted federal tax revenues was fiscal 2007. In that year, the federal government brought in $2,899,644,380,000 in constant 2013 dollars.

If the White House is correct that total federal tax receipts will hit $3,023,004,000,000 in fiscal 2014, that would represent an increase of $123,359,620,000 in constant 2013 dollars over fiscal 2007’s record tax haul of $2,899,644,380,000. Real tax revenues this year, according to the White House estimate, will be 4.25 percent higher than they have ever been.

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Rush Limbaugh: Obama ‘Playing Dictator’ With Healthcare

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Photo Credit: APRadio talk show host Rush Limbaugh played President Barack Obama’s announcement about the troubled healthcare law on his show Thursday, commenting as he went and likening the president to a dictator.

When the president had finished explaining his proposed change to Obamacare, which would allow individuals to keep their plans for another year, Limbaugh told his audience:

“He’s doing two things: He’s telling the insurance companies, as a dictator would, what they can and can’t do or what they must or must not do, or what they have to and don’t have to do. He is suggesting … that if you have your plan now and you like it, you can keep it for one more year so that you don’t get any angrier at Democrats than you are now and vote against them next November.”

The Palm-Beach, Fla., based commentator continued, “If your plan has been canceled, he has just ordered the insurance company to make it available to you, so that you can go back and get that plan. The problem is that that plan was canceled precisely because it conflicts with his law, with Obamacare.”

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